Green Ink: Big Oil, Small Cars, and Beach Bars

Crude oil futures rebounded to almost $51 on the back of gains in equity markets, a harbinger of industrial recovery, Bloomberg reports.

The oil scramble heats up. Total signs a deal to process Venezuelan crude for the Chinese market, and also ups the ante in its Canadian oil-sands takeover bid, both in the WSJ. Russia’s Lukoil, frustrated at home, sets its sights on the promising waters off Ghana, in Bloomberg. Not all unconventional plays are appealing, though: Shell nixes a coal-to-liquids and oil-shale deal in China, in the WSJ.

George Monbiot goes survivalist: Why does the U.K., which has contingency plans for every eventuality, have no plan whatsoever for peak oil?, in The Guardian.

Fiat could bring more than just small cars to Chrylser—it could also bring smart management, in the WaPo. Ah, small cars—a new study funded by the insurance industry shows mini cars fare terribly in head-on collisions, in the NYT and the WSJ.

U.S. climate “czar” Carol Browner wants a cap-and-trade bill by the end of the year to ensure street cred at the global climate talks in Denmark, notes the WSJ: “”The position we can take in Copenhagen will be driven by what we are prepared to do domestically,” Ms. Browner said. To get there, Democrats always have the stick of greater regulatory action from the EPA, in MIT Technology Review. Or do they? Now that the White House runs Detroit, are second thoughts emerging about tougher auto-emission standards?, in the WSJ.

Rob Stavins offers the seven reasons why market solutions have become the norm for environmental problems, and why that bodes well for tackling climate change.

Climate scientists are gloomy about keeping temperature rises under 2 degrees, according to a new survey by The Guardian.

A victory for renewable energy: FERC approves the Green Power Express, a $10 billion transmission project to carry clean energy from the Midwest back east, in the WSJ.

And another? Kansas governor Kathleen Sibelius again vetoes new coal plants in Kansas, citing looming environmental regulations to find energy other than coal, in the Kansas City Star: “What was a bad idea last year, is an even worse idea today,” she said.

Finally, environmentalists in Spain do the impossible: By seeking to outlaw the cherished “chiringuitos,” the beach bars, they’ve managed to unite perennially quarreling politicians on the left and right, in The Guardian.

About Environmental Capital

Environmental Capital provides daily news and analysis of the shifting energy and environmental landscape. The Wall Street Journal’s Keith Johnson is the lead writer. Environmental Capital is led by Journal energy reporter Russell Gold, and includes contributions from other writers at the Journal, WSJ.com, and Dow Jones Newswires. Write us at environmentalcapital@wsj.com.